Wild rocket variety 89-004 rz

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to a Diplotaxis tenuifolia seed designated 89-004 RZ, which exhibits a combination of traits including downy mildew resistance, medium green leaves, medium leaf division and a very short plant height at flowering stage. The present invention also relates to a Diplotaxis tenuifolia plant produced by growing the 89-004 RZ seed. The invention further relates to methods for producing the wild rocket cultivar, represented by wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ.

INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE

This application claims priority to U.S. provisional patent applicationSer. No. 62/557,388, filed Sep. 12, 2017.

All documents cited or referenced herein (“herein cited documents”), andall documents cited or referenced in herein cited documents, togetherwith any manufacturer's instructions, descriptions, productspecifications, and product sheets for any products mentioned herein orin any document incorporated herein by reference, are herebyincorporated herein by reference, and may be employed in the practice ofthe invention.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to a new wild rocket (Diplotaxistenuifolia) variety which may exhibit a combination of traits includingdowny mildew resistance, medium green leaves, medium leaf division and avery short plant height at flowering stage.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Wild rocket (Diplotaxis tenuifolia) is a specialty leaf vegetable alsoknown as rucola and arugula. Wild rocket is a quick growing crop grownfor its leaves. Due to its pleasant taste it is often used as aningredient in salads and other dishes.

In many production areas the production of wild rocket is being hinderedby the infection of the plants by downy mildew (Hyaloperonosporaparasitica, previously called Peronospora parasitica). Downy mildew is apolycyclic disease caused by different species of the oomyceteHyaloperonospora. The obligate parasite from the genus Hyaloperonosporais living on Brassica plants and related cruciferous crops. The lossesare more severe at the seedling stage than on mature healthy plants.Young seedlings can die as a result of the infection. Cool and moistconditions are favorable for the disease development. The disease causesquantitative and qualitative losses of the crops. Although all (aerial)parts of the plant can be infected, the symptoms primarily appear on theleaves. Symptoms of the disease such as discolored lesions and necroticspots with brown edges can destroy the quality of the leaves. Also thequantity of the harvest is reduced due to the downy mildew infection.

Citation or identification of any document in this application is not anadmission that such document is available as prior art to the presentinvention.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

There exists a need, therefore, for a wild rocket variety which exhibitsa combination of traits including downy mildew resistance, medium greenleaves, medium leaf division and a very short plant height at floweringstage.

The present invention addresses this need by providing a new type ofwild rocket (Diplotaxis tenuifolia) variety, designated 89-004 RZ. Wildrocket cultivar 89-004 RZ exhibits a combination of traits includingdowny mildew resistance, medium green leaves, medium leaf division and avery short plant height at flowering stage.

The present invention provides a seed of wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ,a sample of seed of said variety having been deposited with the NationalCollections of Industrial, Marine and Food Bacteria (NCIMB) inBucksburn, Aberdeen AB21 9YA, Scotland, UK and having been assignedNCIMB Accession No. 42802.

The invention further relates to a plant grown from said seed of wildrocket variety 89-004 RZ.

In one embodiment, the invention relates to a plant grown from said seedof wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ, which is a plant grown from seedhaving been deposited under NCIMB Accession No. 42802.

In one embodiment, the invention provides a wild rocket plant, or a partthereof, having all the physiological and morphological characteristicsof wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ, a sample of seed of said varietyhaving been deposited under NCIMB Accession No. 42802.

In one embodiment, the invention provides a wild rocket plant designated89-004 RZ, representative seed of which have been deposited under NCIMBAccession No. 42802, wherein said wild rocket plant may comprise acombination of traits including downy mildew resistance, medium greenleaves, medium leaf division and a very short plant height at floweringstage.

In one embodiment, the invention provides a wild rocket plant designated89-004 RZ, representative seed of which have been deposited under NCIMBAccession No. 42802.

In one embodiment, the invention provides for a wild rocket plant whichmay comprise genetic information for so exhibiting a combination oftraits including downy mildew resistance, medium green leaves, mediumleaf division and a very short plant height at flowering stage, whereinthe genetic information is as contained in a plant, representative seedof which having been deposited under NCIMB Accession No. 42802.

In one embodiment, the invention provides for a wild rocket plantexhibiting a combination of traits downy mildew resistance, medium greenleaves, medium leaf division and a very short plant height at floweringstage, and having the genetic information for so exhibiting thecombination of traits, wherein the genetic information is as containedin a plant, representative seed of which having been deposited underNCIMB Accession No. 42802.

In an embodiment of the present invention, there also is provided a partof a wild rocket plant of the invention, which may include a part of awild rocket plant exhibiting a combination of traits including downymildew resistance, medium green leaves, medium leaf division and a veryshort plant height at flowering stage, or a part of a wild rocket planthaving any of the aforementioned resistance(s) and a combination oftraits including one or more morphological or physiologicalcharacteristics tabulated herein, including a part of wild rocketvariety 89-004 RZ, wherein the plant part is involved in sexualreproduction, which includes, without limitation, a microspore, pollen,an ovary, an ovule, an embryo sacs or an egg cell and/or wherein theplant part is suitable for vegetative reproduction, which includes,without limitation, a cutting, a root, a stem, a cell or a protoplastand/or wherein the plant part is a tissue culture of regenerable cellsin which the cells or protoplasts of the tissue culture are derived froma tissue such as, for example and without limitation, a leaf, pollen, anembryo, a cotyledon, a hypocotyl, a meristematic cell, a root, a roottip, an anthers, a flower, a seed or a stem. The plants of the inventionfrom which such a part may come from include those whereinrepresentative seed of which has been deposited under NCIMB AccessionNo. 42802 or wild rocket variety or cultivar designated 89-004 RZ, aswell as seed from such a plant, plant parts of such a plant (such asthose mentioned herein) and plants from such seed and/or progeny of sucha plant, advantageously progeny exhibiting such combination of suchtraits, each of which, is within the scope of the invention; and suchcombination of traits.

In a further embodiment there is a wild rocket plant regenerated fromthe above-described plant part or regenerated from the above-describedtissue culture. Advantageously such a plant may have morphologicaland/or physiological characteristics of wild rocket variety 89-004 RZand/or of a plant grown from seed, representative seed of which havingbeen deposited under NCIMB Accession No. 42802—including withoutlimitation such a plant expressing all of the morphological andphysiological characteristics of wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ and/or ofa plant grown from seed, representative seed of which having beendeposited under NCIMB Accession No. 42802. Advantageously, such a plantdemonstrates the traits of downy mildew resistance, medium green leaves,medium leaf division and a very short plant height at flowering stage.

Accordingly, in still a further embodiment, there is provided a wildrocket plant having all of the morphological and physiologicalcharacteristics of wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ, representative seed ofwhich having been deposited under NCIMB Accession No. 42802. Such aplant may be grown from the seeds, regenerated from the above-describedplant parts, or regenerated from the above-described tissue culture. Awild rocket plant having any of the aforementioned resistance(s), andone or more morphological or physiological characteristics recited ortabulated herein, and a wild rocket plant advantageously having all ofthe aforementioned resistances and the characteristics recited andtabulated herein, are preferred. Parts of such plants—such as thoseplant parts above-mentioned—are encompassed by the invention.

In an embodiment of the present invention, the invention relates to amethod of vegetatively propagating a plant of wild rocket variety 89-004RZ which may comprise (a) collecting tissue capable of being propagatedfrom a plant of wild rocket 89-004 RZ, a sample of seed of said varietyhaving been deposited under NCIMB Accession No. 42802, and (b) producinga rooted plant from said tissue.

In one embodiment, there is provided a method for producing a progeny ofwild rocket cultivar 89-004 RZ which may comprise crossing a plantdesignated 89-004 RZ with itself or with another wild rocket plant,harvesting the resultant seed, and growing said seed.

In a further embodiment there is provided a progeny plant produced bysexual or vegetative reproduction, grown from seeds, regenerated fromthe above-described plant parts, or regenerated from the above-describedtissue culture of the wild rocket cultivar or a progeny plant thereof,representative seed of which having been deposited under NCIMB AccessionNo. 42802. The progeny may have any of the aforementioned resistance(s),and one or more morphological or physiological characteristics recitedor tabulated herein, and a progeny plant advantageously having all ofthe aforementioned resistances and the characteristics recited andtabulated herein, are preferred. Advantageously, the progeny demonstratethe traits of downy mildew resistance, medium green leaves, medium leafdivision and a very short plant height at flowering stage.

Progeny of the wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ may be modified in one ormore other characteristics, in which the modification is a result of,for example and without limitation, mutagenesis or transformation with atransgene.

In still another embodiment, the present invention provides progeny ofwild rocket cultivar 89-004 RZ produced by sexual or vegetativereproduction, grown from seeds, regenerated from the above-describedplant parts, or regenerated from the above-described tissue culture ofthe wild rocket cultivar or a progeny plant thereof, in which theregenerated plant shows a combination of traits including downy mildewresistance, medium green leaves, medium leaf division and a very shortplant height at flowering stage.

In still a further embodiment, the invention provides a method ofproducing a hybrid wild rocket seed which may comprise crossing a firstparent wild rocket plant with a second parent wild rocket plant andharvesting the resultant hybrid wild rocket seed, in which the firstparent wild rocket plant or the second parent wild rocket plant may be awild rocket plant of the invention, e.g. a wild rocket plant having acombination of traits including downy mildew resistance, medium greenleaves, medium leaf division and a very short plant height at floweringstage and one or more morphological or physiological characteristicstabulated herein, including a wild rocket plant of wild rocket cultivar89-004 RZ, representative seed of which having been deposited under42802.

In another embodiment, the invention provides producing a wild rocketplant which may exhibit a combination of traits including downy mildewresistance, medium green leaves, medium leaf division and a very shortplant height at flowering stage which may comprise: crossing a motherwild rocket plant with a father wild rocket plant to produce a hybridseed; growing said hybrid seed to produce a hybrid plant; selfing saidhybrid plant to produce F2 progeny seed; growing said F2 progeny seed toproduce F2-plants; selecting said F2-plants for exhibiting a combinationof traits including downy mildew resistance, medium green leaves, mediumleaf division and a very short plant height at flowering stage.

Advantageously the selfing and selection may be repeated; for example atleast once, or at least twice, thrice, four times, five times, six timesor more, to produce F3 or F4 or F5 or F6 or subsequent progeny,especially as progeny from F2 may exhibit the aforementioned combinationof traits, and may be desirable.

In still a further embodiment, the invention provides a method ofproducing a wild rocket cultivar which may exhibit a combination oftraits including downy mildew resistance, medium green leaves, mediumleaf division and a very short plant height at flowering stage.

The invention even further relates to a method of producing wild rocketwhich may comprise: (a) cultivating to the vegetative plant stage aplant of wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ, representative seed of whichhaving been deposited under NCIMB Accession No. 42802, and (b)harvesting wild rocket leaves or heads from the plant. The inventionfurther comprehends packaging and/or processing the wild rocket plants,heads or leaves.

Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to not encompass withinthe invention any previously known product, process of making theproduct, or method of using the product such that Applicants reserve theright and hereby disclose a disclaimer of any previously known product,process, or method. It is further noted that the invention does notintend to encompass within the scope of the invention any product,process, or making of the product or method of using the product, whichdoes not meet the written description and enablement requirements of theUSPTO (35 U.S.C. § 112, first paragraph) or the EPO (Article 83 of theEPC), such that Applicants reserve the right and hereby disclose adisclaimer of any previously described product, process of making theproduct, or method of using the product.

It is noted that in this disclosure and particularly in the claims,terms such as “comprises”, “comprised”, and “comprising” and the like(e.g., “includes”, “included”, “including”, “contains”, “contained”,“containing”, “has”, “had”, “having”, etc.) can have the meaningascribed to them in US Patent law, i.e., they are open ended terms. Forexample, any method that “comprises,” “has” or “includes” one or moresteps is not limited to possessing only those one or more steps and alsocovers other unlisted steps. Similarly, any plant that “comprises,”“has” or “includes” one or more traits is not limited to possessing onlythose one or more traits and covers other unlisted traits. Similarly,the terms “consists essentially of” and “consisting essentially of” havethe meaning ascribed to them in US Patent law, e.g., they allow forelements not explicitly recited, but exclude elements that are found inthe prior art or that affect a basic or novel characteristic of theinvention. See also MPEP § 2111.03. In addition, the term “about” isused to indicate that a value includes the standard deviation of errorfor the device or method being employed to determine the value.

These and other embodiments are disclosed or are obvious from andencompassed by the following Detailed Description.

Deposit

The Deposit with NCIMB Ltd, Ferguson Building, Craibstone Estate,Bucksburn, Aberdeen AB21 9YA, UK, on Aug. 14, 2017, under depositaccession number 42802 was made pursuant to the terms of the BudapestTreaty. Upon issuance of a patent, all restrictions upon the depositwill be removed, and the deposit is intended to meet the requirements of37 CFR §§ 1.801-1.809. The deposit will be irrevocably and withoutrestriction or condition released to the public upon the issuance of apatent and for the enforceable life of the patent. The deposit will bemaintained in the depository for a period of 30 years, or 5 years afterthe last request, or for the effective life of the patent, whichever islonger, and will be replaced if necessary during that period.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The following detailed description, given by way of example, but notintended to limit the invention solely to the specific embodimentsdescribed, may best be understood in conjunction with the accompanyingdrawing, in which:

FIG. 1 is an illustration of five different levels of leaf division. Thedivision of the leaf should be observed in the middle third of the leaf.

FIG. 2 is a representative illustration of a circular leaf and anelliptic leaf with a round top.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The invention provides methods and compositions relating to plants,seeds and derivatives of a new wild rocket variety herein referred to aswild rocket variety 89-004 RZ. Wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ is auniform and stable line, distinct from other such lines.

In a preferred embodiment, the specific type of breeding method employedfor developing a wild rocket cultivar is pedigree selection, where bothsingle plant selection and mass selection practices are employed.Pedigree selection, also known as the “Vilmorin system of selection,” isdescribed in Fehr, W., Principles of Cultivar Development, Volume I,MacMillan Publishing Co., which is hereby incorporated by reference.

When pedigree selection is applied, in general selection is firstpracticed among F₂ plants. In the next season, the most desirable F₃lines are first identified, and then desirable F₃ plants within eachline are selected. The following season and in all subsequentgenerations of inbreeding, the most desirable families are identifiedfirst, then desirable lines within the selected families are chosen, andfinally desirable plants within selected lines are harvestedindividually. A family refers to lines that were derived from plantsselected from the same progeny from the preceding generation. Using thispedigree method, two parents may be crossed using an emasculated femaleand a pollen donor (male) to produce F₁ offspring.

Parental varieties are selected from commercial varieties thatindividually exhibit one or more desired phenotypes. Additionally, anybreeding method involving selection of plants for the desired phenotypemay be used in the method of the present invention.

The F₁ may be self-pollinated to produce a segregating F₂ generation.Individual plants may then be selected which represent the desiredphenotype in each generation (F₃, F₄, F₅, etc.) until the traits arehomozygous or fixed within a breeding population.

A detailed description of the development of wild rocket variety 89-004RZ is described in Table 1. The seedlot in year 7, was deposited withthe NCIMB under deposit number 42802.

TABLE 1 Year Description 0 F1 Pedigree selection from S 09.67057 1 S1F1Plant selected and self fertilized 2 S2F1 Plant selected and selffertilized 3 S3F1 Plant selected and self fertilized 4 S4F1 Plantselected and self fertilized 5 S5F1 Plant selected and self fertilized 5S6F1 Plant selected and self fertilized 6 M1S6F1 Generation grown (inmass) 7 M2S6F1 Generation grown (in mass)

In one embodiment, a plant of the invention has all the morphologicaland physiological characteristics of wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ.These characteristics of a wild rocket plant of the invention, e.g.variety 89-004 RZ, are summarized and compared to its closest publiclyavailable variety in Table 2.

The information presented in Table 2 was determined in trial experimentsin accordance with the UPOV TG/244/1 Form (Guidelines for the Conduct ofTests for Distinctness, Uniformity and Stability, International Unionfor the Protection of New Varieties of Plants). The terminology used inthese tables is the official terminology found and defined in the UPOVTG/244/1 as of the filing date, and is thus clear for a person skilledin the art.

TABLE 2 Physiological and morphological characteristics of 89-004 RZ incomparison with closest known variety “Tricia”. Character 89-004 RZTricia Ploidy Diploid Diploid Leaf  2. Color of blade Green (1) Green(1)  3. Intensity of color Medium (5) Light to medium (4)  4. LengthMedium (5) Medium (5)  5. Width Medium (5) Medium (5)  6. DivisionMedium (5) Weak to medium (4)  7. Width of primary lobes Narrow toNarrow to medium (4) medium (4)  8. Secondary lobing Absent or weak toMedium (2) medium (1-2)  9. Time of flowering Early (3) Medium (5) Plant10. Height at flowering stage Very short (2) Medium (5)

Aside from the morphological and physiological characteristics mentionedin Table 2, a plant of the invention also exhibits downy mildewresistance, medium green leaves, medium leaf division and a very shortplant height at flowering stage.

As used herein, resistance to downy mildew is defined as the ability ofa plant to resist infection by Hyaloperonospora parasitica. Under normaldisease pressure plants of wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ show nosymptoms of downy mildew infection, while under high disease pressuresaid plants may show some disease symptoms such as the formation ofdiscolored lesions and/or necrotic spots. Resistance is tested byinoculating a relevant number of plants, such as 30, with spores ofHyaloperonospora parasitica after having grown the plants for about 2weeks at a temperature regime of 14/12° C. day/night, and observingsymptoms of downy mildew infection, including the formation ofdiscoloured lesions, necrotic spots with brown edges and sporulation, 10and 17 days later. Plants of wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ show nosymptoms of downy mildew infection is such a disease test. Wild rocketvariety 89-004 RZ exhibits a resistance to Hyaloperonospora parasitica.

As used herein, the color and color intensity of the leaf is inconcordance with that used on the UPOV TG/244/1 Form. Wild rocketvariety 89-004 RZ has medium green leaves. On the TG/244/1 Form thecolor of the leaf blade is determined by visual comparison to standardvarieties. Two different leaf blade colors are recognized: grey and greygreen. The color of the leaf blade is determined by comparison tostandard varieties Nature and Tiger. Nature has a green leaf blade,while Tiger has a grey green leaf blade. The color of the leaf blades ofwild rocket variety 89-004 RZ is green, as they are most similar incolor to those of variety Nature. On the TG/244/1 Form three differentcolor intensities of the leaf are recognized: light, medium and dark.The color intensity of the leaves of wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ ismedium.

As used herein, the leaf division is in concordance with that used onthe UPOV TG/244/1 Form. On the TG/244/1 Form the leaf division isdetermined by visual comparison to standard varieties. Four differentlevels of leaf division are recognized: absent or very weak, weak,medium and strong. The level of leaf division is determined bycomparison to standard wild rocket varieties Olivetta, Tiger and Nature.Standard variety Olivetta has no or very weak leaf division, the levelof leaf division of standard variety Tiger is weak and the level of leafdivision of standard variety Nature is medium. The level of leafdivision of wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ is medium.

As used herein, the plant height at flowering stage is in concordancewith that used on the UPOV TG/244/1 Form. On the TG/244/1 Form the plantheight is determined by visual comparison to standard varieties. Threedifferent categories plant height are recognized: short, medium andlong. The level of plant height is determined by comparison to standardwild rocket varieties Tiger, Nature, and Verdia and Voyager. Standardvariety Tiger has a short plant height at flowering stage, the plantheight at flowering stage of standard variety Nature is medium and theplant height at flowering stage of standard varieties Verdia and Voyageis long. The plant height at flowering stage of wild rocket variety89-004 RZ is very short, as it is even shorter than the plant height atflowering stage of standard variety Tiger.

In an embodiment, the invention relates to a wild rocket plant that hasall the morphological and physiological characteristics of the inventionand has acquired said characteristics by introduction of the geneticinformation that is responsible for the characteristics from a suitablesource, either by conventional breeding, or genetic modification, inparticular by cisgenesis or transgenesis. Cisgenesis is geneticmodification of plants with a natural gene, coding for an (agricultural)trait, from the crop plant itself or from a sexually compatible donorplant. Transgenesis is genetic modification of a plant with a gene froma non-crossable species or a synthetic gene.

Just as useful traits that may be introduced by backcrossing, usefultraits may be introduced directly into the plant of the invention, beinga plant of wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ, by genetic transformationtechniques; and, such plants of wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ that haveadditional genetic information introduced into the genome or thatexpress additional traits by having the DNA coding there for introducedinto the genome via transformation techniques, are within the ambit ofthe invention, as well as uses of such plants, and the making of suchplants.

Genetic transformation may therefore be used to insert a selectedtransgene into the plant of the invention, being a plant of wild rocketvariety 89-004 RZ or may, alternatively, be used for the preparation oftransgenes which may be introduced by backcrossing. Methods for thetransformation of plants, including wild rocket, are well known to thoseof skill in the art.

Vectors used for the transformation of wild rocket cells are not limitedso long as the vector may express an inserted DNA in the cells. Forexample, vectors which may comprise promoters for constitutive geneexpression in wild rocket cells (e.g., cauliflower mosaic virus 35Spromoter) and promoters inducible by exogenous stimuli may be used.Examples of suitable vectors include pBI binary vector. The “wild rocketcell” into which the vector is to be introduced includes various formsof wild rocket cells, such as cultured cell suspensions, protoplasts,leaf sections, and callus. A vector may be introduced into wild rocketcells by known methods, such as the polyethylene glycol method,polycation method, electroporation, Agrobacterium-mediated transfer,particle bombardment and direct DNA uptake by protoplasts. To effecttransformation by electroporation, one may employ either friabletissues, such as a suspension culture of cells or embryogenic callus oralternatively one may transform immature embryos or other organizedtissue directly. In this technique, one would partially degrade the cellwalls of the chosen cells by exposing them to pectin-degrading enzymes(pectolyases) or mechanically wound tissues in a controlled manner.

A particularly efficient method for delivering transforming DNA segmentsto plant cells is microprojectile bombardment. In this method, particlesare coated with nucleic acids and delivered into cells by a propellingforce. Exemplary particles include those which may be comprised oftungsten, platinum, and preferably, gold. For the bombardment, cells insuspension are concentrated on filters or solid culture medium.Alternatively, immature embryos or other target cells may be arranged onsolid culture medium. The cells to be bombarded are positioned at anappropriate distance below the macroprojectile stopping plate. Anillustrative embodiment of a method for delivering DNA into plant cellsby acceleration is the Biolistics Particle Delivery System, which may beused to propel particles coated with DNA or cells through a screen, suchas a stainless steel or Nytex screen, onto a surface covered with targetwild rocket cells. The screen disperses the particles so that they arenot delivered to the recipient cells in large aggregates. It is believedthat a screen intervening between the projectile apparatus and the cellsto be bombarded reduces the size of projectiles aggregate and maycontribute to a higher frequency of transformation by reducing thedamage inflicted on the recipient cells by projectiles that are toolarge. Microprojectile bombardment techniques are widely applicable, andmay be used to transform virtually any plant species, including a plantof wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ.

Agrobacterium-mediated transfer is another widely applicable system forintroducing gene loci into plant cells. An advantage of the technique isthat DNA may be introduced into whole plant tissues, thereby bypassingthe need for regeneration of an intact plant from a protoplast.Agrobacterium transformation vectors are capable of replication in E.coli as well as Agrobacterium, allowing for convenient manipulations.Moreover, advances in vectors for Agrobacterium-mediated gene transferhave improved the arrangement of genes and restriction sites in thevectors to facilitate the construction of vectors capable of expressingvarious polypeptide coding genes. The vectors have convenientmulti-linker regions flanked by a promoter and a polyadenylation sitefor direct expression of inserted polypeptide coding genes.Additionally, Agrobacterium containing both armed and disarmed Ti genesmay be used for transformation. In those plant strains whereAgrobacterium-mediated transformation is efficient, it is the method ofchoice because of the facile and defined nature of the gene locustransfer. The use of Agrobacterium-mediated plant integrating vectors tointroduce DNA into plant cells, including lettuce plant cells, is wellknown in the art (See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,250,560 and 5,563,055).

Transformation of plant protoplasts also may be achieved using methodsbased on calcium phosphate precipitation, polyethylene glycol treatment,electroporation, and combinations of these treatments.

A number of promoters have utility for plant gene expression for anygene of interest including but not limited to selectable markers,scoreable markers, genes for pest tolerance, disease resistance,nutritional enhancements and any other gene of agronomic interest.Examples of constitutive promoters useful for wild rocket plant geneexpression include, but are not limited to, the cauliflower mosaic virus(CaMV) P-35S promoter, a tandemly duplicated version of the CaMV 35Spromoter, the enhanced 35S promoter (P-e35S), the nopaline synthasepromoter, the octopine synthase promoter, the figwort mosaic virus(P-FMV) promoter (see U.S. Pat. No. 5,378,619), an enhanced version ofthe FMV promoter (P-eFMV) where the promoter sequence of P-FMV isduplicated in tandem, the cauliflower mosaic virus 19S promoter, asugarcane bacilliform virus promoter, a commelina yellow mottle viruspromoter, the promoter for the thylakoid membrane proteins from lettuce(psaD, psaF, psaE, PC, FNR, atpC, atpD, cab, rbcS) (see U.S. Pat. No.7,161,061), the CAB-1 promoter from spinach (see U.S. Pat. No.7,663,027), the promoter from maize prolamin seed storage protein (seeU.S. Pat. No. 7,119,255), and other plant DNA virus promoters known toexpress in plant cells. A variety of plant gene promoters that areregulated in response to environmental, hormonal, chemical, and/ordevelopmental signals may be used for expression of an operably linkedgene in plant cells, including promoters regulated by (1) heat, (2)light (e.g., pea rbcS-3A promoter, maize rbcS promoter, or chlorophylla/b-binding protein promoter), (3) hormones, such as abscisic acid, (4)wounding (e.g., wun1, or (5) chemicals such as methyl jasmonate,salicylic acid, or Safener. It may also be advantageous to employorgan-specific promoters.

Exemplary nucleic acids which may be introduced to the wild rocketvariety of this invention include, for example, DNA sequences or genesfrom another species, or even genes or sequences which originate with orare present in wild rocket species, but are incorporated into recipientcells by genetic engineering methods rather than classical reproductionor breeding techniques. However, the term “exogenous” is also intendedto refer to genes that are not normally present in the cell beingtransformed, or perhaps simply not present in the form, structure, etc.,as found in the transforming DNA segment or gene, or genes which arenormally present and that one desires to express in a manner thatdiffers from the natural expression pattern, e.g., to over-express.Thus, the term “exogenous” gene or DNA is intended to refer to any geneor DNA segment that is introduced into a recipient cell, regardless ofwhether a similar gene may already be present in such a cell. The typeof DNA included in the exogenous DNA may include DNA which is alreadypresent in the plant cell, DNA from another plant, DNA from a differentorganism, or a DNA generated externally, such as a DNA sequencecontaining an antisense message of a gene, or a DNA sequence encoding asynthetic or modified version of a gene.

Many hundreds if not thousands of different genes are known and couldpotentially be introduced into a plant of wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ.Non-limiting examples of particular genes and corresponding phenotypesone may choose to introduce into a wild rocket plant include one or moregenes for insect tolerance, pest tolerance such as genes for fungaldisease control, herbicide tolerance, and genes for quality improvementssuch as yield, nutritional enhancements, environmental or stresstolerances, or any desirable changes in plant physiology, growth,development, morphology or plant product(s).

Alternatively, the DNA coding sequences may affect these phenotypes byencoding a non-translatable RNA molecule that causes the targetedinhibition of expression of an endogenous gene, for example viaantisense- or cosuppression-mediated mechanisms. The RNA could also be acatalytic RNA molecule (i.e., a ribozyme) engineered to cleave a desiredendogenous mRNA product. Thus, any gene which produces a protein or mRNAwhich expresses a phenotype or morphology change of interest is usefulfor the practice of the present invention. (See also U.S. Pat. No.7,576,262, “Modified gene-silencing RNA and uses thereof.”)

U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,230,158, 7,122,720, 7,081,363, 6,734,341, 6,503,732,6,392,121, 6,087,560, 5,981,181, 5,977,060, 5,608,146, 5,516,667, eachof which, and all documents cited therein are hereby incorporated hereinby reference, consistent with the above INCORPORATION BY REFERENCEsection, are additionally cited as examples of U.S. patents that mayconcern transformed wild rocket and/or methods of transforming wildrocket or wild rocket plant cells, and techniques from these US patents,as well as promoters, vectors, etc., may be employed in the practice ofthis invention to introduce exogenous nucleic acid sequence(s) into aplant of wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ (or cells thereof), and exemplifysome exogenous nucleic acid sequence(s) which may be introduced into aplant of wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ (or cells thereof) of theinvention, as well as techniques, promoters, vectors etc., to therebyobtain further plants of wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ, plant parts andcells, seeds, other propagation material harvestable parts of theseplants, etc. of the invention, e.g. tissue culture, including a cell orprotoplast, such as an embryo, meristem, cotyledon, pollen, leaf,anther, root, root tip, pistil, flower, seed or stalk.

The invention further relates to propagation material for producingplants of the invention. Such propagation material may comprise interalia seeds of the claimed plant and parts of the plant that are involvedin sexual reproduction. Such parts are for example selected from thegroup consisting of seeds, microspores, pollen, ovaries, ovules, embryosacs and egg cells. In addition, the invention relates to propagationmaterial which may comprise parts of the plant that are suitable forvegetative reproduction, for example cuttings, roots, stems, cells,protoplasts.

According to a further aspect thereof the propagation material of theinvention may comprise a tissue culture of the claimed plant. The tissueculture may comprise regenerable cells. Such tissue culture may bederived from leaves, pollen, embryos, cotyledon, hypocotyls,meristematic cells, roots, root tips, anthers, flowers, seeds and stems.(See generally U.S. Pat. No. 7,041,876).

The invention provides a method of producing a wild rocket seed whichmay comprise crossing a male parent wild rocket plant with a wild rocketparent lettuce plant and harvesting the resultant wild rocket seed,wherein said male parent wild rocket plant and/or said female parentwild rocket plant is the wild rocket plant of grown from a seed of wildrocket variety 89-004 RZ, a sample of seed of said variety having beendeposited under NCIMB Accession No. 42802. The invention includes a wildrocket seed produced by this method and a wild rocket plant produced bygrowing said seed.

Also, the invention comprehends methods for producing a seed of a“89-004 RZ”-derived wild rocket plant which may comprise (a) crossing aplant of wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ, representative seed of whichhaving been deposited under NCIMB Accession No. 42802, with a secondwild rocket plant, and (b) whereby seed of a 89-004 RZ-derived wildrocket plant forms. Such a method may further comprise (c) crossing aplant grown from 89-004 RZ-derived wild rocket seed with itself or witha second wild rocket plant to yield additional 89-004 RZ-derived wildrocket seed, (d) growing the additional 89-004 RZ-derived wild rocketseed of step (c) to yield additional 89-004 RZ-derived wild rocketplants, and (e) repeating the crossing and growing of steps (c) and (d)for an additional 3-10 generations to generate further 89-004 RZ-derivedwild rocket plants, and (f) whereby seed of a 89-004 RZ-derived wildrocket plant forms.

The invention further relates to the above-described methods that mayfurther comprise selecting at steps b), d), and e), a 89-004 RZ-derivedwild rocket plant, exhibiting a combination of traits including downymildew resistance, medium green leaves, medium leaf division and a veryshort plant height at flowering stage.

The invention even further relates to a seed produced by theabove-described methods.

In particular, the invention relates to methods for producing a seed ofa 89-004 RZ-derived wild rocket plant which may comprise (a) crossing aplant of wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ, representative seed of whichhaving been deposited under NCIMB Accession No. 42802, with a secondwild rocket plant and (b) whereby seed of a 89-004 RZ-derived wildrocket plant forms, wherein such a method may further comprise (c)crossing a plant grown from 89-004 RZ-derived wild rocket seed withitself or with a second wild rocket plant to yield additional 89-004RZ-derived wild rocket seed, (d) growing the additional 89-004RZ-derived wild rocket seed of step (c) to yield additional 89-004RZ-derived wild rocket plants and selecting plants exhibiting acombination of the traits including downy mildew resistance, mediumgreen leaves, medium leaf division and a very short plant height atflowering stage, and (e) repeating the crossing and growing of steps (c)and (d) for an additional 3-10 generations to further generate 89-004RZ-derived wild rocket plants that exhibit a combination of traitsincluding downy mildew resistance, medium green leaves, medium leafdivision and a very short plant height at flowering stage.

The invention additionally provides a method of introducing at least onenew trait into a plant of wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ which maycomprise: (a) crossing a plant of wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ,representative seed of which having been deposited under NCIMB AccessionNo. 42802, with a second wild rocket plant that may comprise at leastone new trait to produce progeny seed; (b) harvesting and planting theprogeny seed to produce at least one progeny plant of a subsequentgeneration, wherein the progeny plant may comprise the at least one newtrait; (c) crossing the progeny plant with a plant of wild rocketvariety 89-004 RZ to produce backcross progeny seed; (d) harvesting andplanting the backcross progeny seed to produce a backcross progenyplant; and (e) repeating steps (c) and (d) for at least three additionalgenerations to produce a wild rocket plant of variety 89-004 RZ whichmay comprise at least one new trait and all of the physiological andmorphological characteristics of a plant of wild rocket variety 89-004RZ, when grown in the same environmental conditions. This method maycomprise introducing a mutation or transgene conferring the at least onenew trait into a plant of wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ. The invention,of course, includes a wild rocket plant produced by this method.

Backcrossing may also be used to improve an inbred plant. Backcrossingtransfers a specific desirable trait from one inbred or non-inbredsource to an inbred that lacks that trait. This may be accomplished, forexample, by first crossing a superior inbred (A) (recurrent parent) to adonor inbred (non-recurrent parent), which carries the appropriate locusor loci for the trait in question. The progeny of this cross are thenmated back to the superior recurrent parent (A) followed by selection inthe resultant progeny for the desired trait to be transferred from thenon-recurrent parent. After five or more backcross generations withselection for the desired trait, the progeny are heterozygous for locicontrolling the characteristic being transferred, but are like thesuperior parent for most or almost all other loci. The last backcrossgeneration would be selfed to give pure breeding progeny for the traitbeing transferred. When a plant of wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ,representative seed of which having been deposited under NCIMB AccessionNo. 42802, is used in backcrossing, offspring retaining the combinationof traits including downy mildew resistance, medium green leaves, mediumleaf division and a very short plant height at flowering stage areprogeny within the ambit of the invention. Backcrossing methods may beused with the present invention to improve or introduce a characteristicinto a plant of the invention, being a plant of wild rocket variety89-004 RZ. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 7,705,206 (incorporated herein byreference consistent with the above INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE section),for a general discussion relating to backcrossing.

The invention further involves a method of determining the genotype of aplant of wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ, representative seed of which hasbeen deposited under NCIMB Accession No. 42802, or a first generationprogeny thereof, which may comprise obtaining a sample of nucleic acidsfrom said plant and comparing said nucleic acids to a sample of nucleicacids obtained from a reference plant, and detecting a plurality ofpolymorphisms between the two nucleic acid samples. This method mayadditionally comprise the step of storing the results of detecting theplurality of polymorphisms on a computer readable medium. The pluralityof polymorphisms are indicative of and/or give rise to the expression ofany one or more, or all, of the morphological and physiologicalcharacteristics of wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ. There are various waysof obtaining genotype data from a nucleic acid sample. Genotype data maybe gathered which is specific for certain phenotypic traits (e.g. genesequences), but also patterns of random genetic variation may beobtained to construct a so-called DNA fingerprint. Depending on thetechnique used a fingerprint may be obtained that is unique for wildrocket variety 89-004 RZ. Obtaining a unique DNA fingerprint depends onthe genetic variation present in a variety and the sensitivity of thefingerprinting technique. A technique known in the art to provide a goodfingerprint profile is called AFLP fingerprinting technique (Seegenerally U.S. Pat. No. 5,874,215), but there are many other markerbased techniques, such as RFLP (or Restriction fragment lengthpolymorphism), SSLP (or Simple sequence length polymorphism), RAPD (orRandom amplification of polymorphic DNA) VNTR (or Variable number tandemrepeat), Microsatellite polymorphism, SSR (or Simple sequence repeat),STR (or Short tandem repeat), SFP (or Single feature polymorphism) DArT(or Diversity Arrays Technology), RAD markers (or Restriction siteassociated DNA markers) (e.g. Baird et al. PloS One Vol. 3 e3376, 2008;Semagn et al. African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 5 number 25 pp.2540-2568, 29 Dec., 2006). Nowadays, sequence-based methods areutilizing Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms (SNPs) that are randomlydistributed across genomes, as a common tool for genotyping (e.g.Elshire et al. PloS One Vol. 6: e19379, 2011; Poland et al. PloS OneVol. 7: e32253; Truong et al. PLoS One Vol. 7 number 5: e37565, 2012).

With any of the aforementioned genotyping techniques, polymorphisms maybe detected when the genotype and/or sequence of the plant of interestis compared to the genotype and/or sequence of one or more referenceplants. As used herein, the genotype and/or sequence of a referenceplant may be derived from, but is not limited to, any one of thefollowing: parental lines, closely related plant varieties or species,complete genome sequence of a related plant variety or species, or thede novo assembled genome sequence of one or more related plant varietiesor species. For example, it is possible to detect polymorphisms for thecharacteristic of the plant height at flowering stage by comparing thegenotype and/or the sequence of wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ with thegenotype and/or the sequence of one or more reference plants. Thereference plant(s) used for comparison in this example may for examplebe, but is not limited to, any of the comparison varieties Tricia.

The polymorphism revealed by these techniques may be used to establishlinks between genotype and phenotype. The polymorphisms may thus be usedto predict or identify certain phenotypic characteristics, individuals,or even species. The polymorphisms are generally called markers. It iscommon practice for the skilled artisan to apply molecular DNAtechniques for generating polymorphisms and creating markers.

The polymorphisms of this invention may be provided in a variety ofmediums to facilitate use, e.g. a database or computer readable medium,which may also contain descriptive annotations in a form that allows askilled artisan to examine or query the polymorphisms and obtain usefulinformation.

As used herein “database” refers to any representation of retrievablecollected data including computer files such as text files, databasefiles, spreadsheet files and image files, printed tabulations andgraphical representations and combinations of digital and image datacollections. In a preferred aspect of the invention, “database” refersto a memory system that may store computer searchable information.

As used herein, “computer readable media” refers to any medium that maybe read and accessed directly by a computer. Such media include, but arenot limited to: magnetic storage media, such as floppy discs, hard disc,storage medium and magnetic tape; optical storage media such as CD-ROM;electrical storage media such as RAM, DRAM, SRAM, SDRAM, ROM; and PROMs(EPROM, EEPROM, Flash EPROM), and hybrids of these categories such asmagnetic/optical storage media. A skilled artisan may readily appreciatehow any of the presently known computer readable mediums may be used tocreate a manufacture which may comprise computer readable medium havingrecorded thereon a polymorphism of the present invention.

As used herein, “recorded” refers to the result of a process for storinginformation in a retrievable database or computer readable medium. Forinstance, a skilled artisan may readily adopt any of the presently knownmethods for recording information on computer readable medium togenerate media which may comprise the polymorphisms of the presentinvention. A variety of data storage structures are available to askilled artisan for creating a computer readable medium where the choiceof the data storage structure will generally be based on the meanschosen to access the stored information. In addition, a variety of dataprocessor programs and formats may be used to store the polymorphisms ofthe present invention on computer readable medium.

The present invention further provides systems, particularlycomputer-based systems, which contain the polymorphisms describedherein. Such systems are designed to identify the polymorphisms of thisinvention. As used herein, “a computer-based system” refers to thehardware, software and memory used to analyze the polymorphisms. Askilled artisan may readily appreciate that any one of the currentlyavailable computer-based system are suitable for use in the presentinvention.

The invention relates to a method of producing wild rocket leaves as afood product which may comprise sowing the seed of wild rocket variety89-004 RZ, and growing the seed into a harvestable wild rocket plant andharvesting the leaves of said plant.

The invention further includes a method for producing wild rocket leavesas a fresh vegetable which may comprise packaging leaves of a plant ofwild rocket variety 89-004 RZ, and a method for producing wild rocketleaves as a processed food which may comprise processing leaves of aplant of wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ.

Wild rocket leaves are sold in packaged form, including withoutlimitation as pre-packaged wild rocket salad or as wild rocket heads.Mention is made of U.S. Pat. No. 5,523,136, incorporated herein byreference consistent with the above INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE section,which provides packaging film, and packages from such packaging film,including such packaging containing leafy produce, and methods formaking and using such packaging film and packages, which are suitablefor use with the wild rocket leaves of the invention. Thus, theinvention comprehends the use of and methods for making and using theleaves of the wild rocket plant of the invention, as well as leaves ofwild rocket plants derived from the invention. The invention furtherrelates to a container which may comprise one or more plants of theinvention, or one or more wild rocket plants derived from a plant of theinvention, for harvest of leaves from the plant. This way the consumermay pick very fresh leaves for use in salads. More generally, theinvention includes one or more plants of the invention or one or moreplants derived from wild rocket of the invention, wherein the plant isin a ready-to-harvest condition, including with the consumer picking hisown, and further including a container which may comprise one or more ofthese plants.

The invention is further described by the following numbered paragraphs:

1. A seed of wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ, a sample of seed of saidvariety having been deposited under NCIMB Accession No. 42802.

2. A plant grown from the seed of paragraph 1.

3. The wild rocket plant of paragraph 2, which is a plant grown fromseed having been deposited under NCIMB Accession No. 42802.

4. A wild rocket plant, or a part thereof, having all the physiologicaland morphological characteristics of the wild rocket plant of paragraph2.

5. A part of the plant of paragraph 4, wherein said part is amicrospore, pollen, an ovary, an ovule, an embryo sac or an egg cell, acutting, a root, a stem, a cell or a protoplast.

6. A tissue culture of regenerable cells or protoplasts from the wildrocket plant or plant part of paragraph 4.

7. The tissue culture of paragraph 6, wherein said cells or protoplastsof the tissue culture are derived from a leaf, pollen, an embryo, acotyledon, a hypocotyl, a meristematic cell, a root, a root tip, ananther, a flower, a seed or a stem.

8. A wild rocket plant regenerated from the tissue culture of paragraph6 or 7, wherein the regenerated plant expresses all of the physiologicaland morphological characteristics of wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ asample of seed of said variety having been deposited under NCIMBAccession No. 42802.

9. A method of vegetatively propagating a plant of wild rocket variety89-004 RZ comprising (a) collecting tissue capable of being propagatedfrom a plant of wild rocket 89-004 RZ, a sample of seed of said varietyhaving been deposited under NCIMB Accession No. 42802, and (b) producinga rooted plant from said tissue.

10. A method of producing a wild rocket seed comprising crossing a maleparent wild rocket plant with a wild rocket parent lettuce plant andharvesting the resultant wild rocket seed, wherein said male parent wildrocket plant and/or said female parent wild rocket plant is the wildrocket plant of paragraph 2.

11. A wild rocket seed produced by the method of paragraph 10.

12. A wild rocket plant produced by growing the seed of paragraph 11.

13. A method for producing a seed of a 89-004 RZ-derived wild rocketplant comprising (a) crossing a plant of wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ,representative seed of which having been deposited under NCIMB AccessionNo. 42802, with a second wild rocket plant, and (b) whereby seed of a89-004 RZ-derived wild rocket plant forms.

14. The method of paragraph 13 further comprising (c) crossing a plantgrown from 89-004 RZ-derived wild rocket seed with itself or with asecond wild rocket plant to yield additional 89-004 RZ-derived wildrocket seed, (d) growing the additional 89-004 RZ-derived wild rocketseed of step (c) to yield additional 89-004 RZ-derived wild rocketplants, and (e) repeating the crossing and growing of steps (c) and (d)for an additional 3-10 generations to generate further 89-004 RZ-derivedwild rocket plants, and (f) whereby seed of a 89-004 RZ-derived wildrocket plant forms.

15. A seed produced by the method of paragraphs 13 or 14.

16. A method of introducing at least one new trait into a plant of wildrocket variety 89-004 RZ comprising: (a) crossing a plant of wild rocketvariety 89-004 RZ, representative seed of which having been depositedunder NCIMB Accession No. 42802, with a second wild rocket plant thatcomprises at least one new trait to produce progeny seed; (b) harvestingand planting the progeny seed to produce at least one progeny plant of asubsequent generation, wherein the progeny plant comprises the at leastone new trait; (c) crossing the progeny plant with a plant of wildrocket variety 89-004 RZ to produce backcross progeny seed; (d)harvesting and planting the backcross progeny seed to produce abackcross progeny plant; and (e) repeating steps (c) and (d) for atleast three additional generations to produce a wild rocket plant ofvariety 89-004 RZ comprising at least one new trait and all of thephysiological and morphological characteristics of a plant of wildrocket variety 89-004 RZ, when grown in the same environmentalconditions.

17. A method of producing a plant of wild rocket variety 89-004 RZcomprising at least one new trait, the method comprising introducing amutation or transgene conferring the at least one new trait into a plantof wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ, wherein a sample of seed of saidvariety has been deposited under NCIMB Accession No. 42802.

18. The wild rocket plant produced by the method of paragraph 16 or 17.

19. A method for producing wild rocket leaves as food product comprisingsowing the seed of a paragraph 1 and growing the seed into a harvestablewild rocket plant and harvesting the leaves of said plant.

20. A method for producing wild rocket leaves as a fresh vegetablecomprising packaging leaves of a plant of paragraph 2.

21. A method for producing wild rocket leaves as a processed foodcomprising processing leaves of a plant of paragraph 2.

22. A container comprising one or more wild rocket plants of paragraph 2for harvest of leaves.

23. A method of determining the genotype of a plant of wild rocketvariety 89-004 RZ, representative seed of which has been deposited underNCIMB Accession No. 42802, or a first generation progeny thereof,comprising obtaining a sample of nucleic acids from said plant andcomparing said nucleic acids to a sample of nucleic acids obtained froma reference plant, and detecting a plurality of polymorphisms betweenthe two nucleic acid samples, wherein the plurality of polymorphisms areindicative of wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ and/or give rise to theexpression of any one or more, or all, of the morphological andphysiological characteristics of wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ ofparagraph 2.

Having thus described in detail preferred embodiments of the presentinvention, it is to be understood that the invention is not to belimited to particular details set forth in the above description as manyapparent variations thereof are possible without departing from thespirit or scope of the present invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A seed of wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ, a sampleof seed of said variety having been deposited under NCIMB Accession No.42802.
 2. A plant grown from the seed of claim
 1. 3. The wild rocketplant of claim 2, which is a plant grown from seed having been depositedunder NCIMB Accession No.
 42802. 4. A wild rocket plant, or a partthereof, having all the physiological and morphological characteristicsof the wild rocket plant of claim
 2. 5. A part of the plant of claim 4,wherein said part is a microspore, pollen, an ovary, an ovule, an embryosac or an egg cell, a cutting, a root, a stem, a cell or a protoplast.6. A tissue culture of regenerable cells or protoplasts from the wildrocket plant or plant part of claim
 4. 7. The tissue culture as claimedin claim 6, wherein said cells or protoplasts of the tissue culture arederived from a leaf, pollen, an embryo, a cotyledon, a hypocotyl, ameristematic cell, a root, a root tip, an anther, a flower, a seed or astem.
 8. A wild rocket plant regenerated from the tissue culture ofclaim 6, wherein the regenerated plant expresses all of thephysiological and morphological characteristics of wild rocket variety89-004 RZ a sample of seed of said variety having been deposited underNCIMB Accession No.
 42802. 9. A method of vegetatively propagating aplant of wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ comprising (a) collecting tissuecapable of being propagated from a plant of wild rocket 89-004 RZ, asample of seed of said variety having been deposited under NCIMBAccession No. 42802, and (b) producing a rooted plant from said tissue.10. A method of producing a wild rocket seed comprising crossing a maleparent wild rocket plant with a wild rocket parent lettuce plant andharvesting the resultant wild rocket seed, wherein said male parent wildrocket plant and/or said female parent wild rocket plant is the wildrocket plant of claim
 2. 11. A wild rocket seed produced by the methodof claim
 10. 12. A wild rocket plant produced by growing the seed ofclaim
 11. 13. A method for producing a seed of a 89-004 RZ-derived wildrocket plant comprising (a) crossing a plant of wild rocket variety89-004 RZ, representative seed of which having been deposited underNCIMB Accession No. 42802, with a second wild rocket plant, and (b)whereby seed of a 89-004 RZ-derived wild rocket plant forms.
 14. Themethod of claim 13 further comprising (c) crossing a plant grown from89-004 RZ-derived wild rocket seed with itself or with a second wildrocket plant to yield additional 89-004 RZ-derived wild rocket seed, (d)growing the additional 89-004 RZ-derived wild rocket seed of step (c) toyield additional 89-004 RZ-derived wild rocket plants, and (e) repeatingthe crossing and growing of steps (c) and (d) for an additional 3-10generations to generate further 89-004 RZ-derived wild rocket plants,and (f) whereby seed of a 89-004 RZ-derived wild rocket plant forms. 15.A seed produced by the method of claim
 13. 16. A method of introducingat least one new trait into a plant of wild rocket variety 89-004 RZcomprising: (a) crossing a plant of wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ,representative seed of which having been deposited under NCIMB AccessionNo. 42802, with a second wild rocket plant that comprises at least onenew trait to produce progeny seed; (b) harvesting and planting theprogeny seed to produce at least one progeny plant of a subsequentgeneration, wherein the progeny plant comprises the at least one newtrait; (c) crossing the progeny plant with a plant of wild rocketvariety 89-004 RZ to produce backcross progeny seed; (d) harvesting andplanting the backcross progeny seed to produce a backcross progenyplant; and (e) repeating steps (c) and (d) for at least three additionalgenerations to produce a wild rocket plant of variety 89-004 RZcomprising at least one new trait and all of the physiological andmorphological characteristics of a plant of wild rocket variety 89-004RZ, when grown in the same environmental conditions.
 17. A method ofproducing a plant of wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ comprising at leastone new trait, the method comprising introducing a mutation or transgeneconferring the at least one new trait into a plant of wild rocketvariety 89-004 RZ, wherein a sample of seed of said variety has beendeposited under NCIMB Accession No.
 42802. 18. The wild rocket plantproduced by the method of claim
 16. 19. A method for producing wildrocket leaves as food product comprising sowing the seed of a claim 1and growing the seed into a harvestable wild rocket plant and harvestingthe leaves of said plant.
 20. A method for producing wild rocket leavesas a fresh vegetable comprising packaging leaves of a plant of claim 2.21. A method for producing wild rocket leaves as a processed foodcomprising processing leaves of a plant of claim
 2. 22. A containercomprising one or more wild rocket plants of claim 2 for harvest ofleaves.
 23. A method of determining the genotype of a plant of wildrocket variety 89-004 RZ, representative seed of which has beendeposited under NCIMB Accession No. 42802, or a first generation progenythereof, comprising obtaining a sample of nucleic acids from said plantand comparing said nucleic acids to a sample of nucleic acids obtainedfrom a reference plant, and detecting a plurality of polymorphismsbetween the two nucleic acid samples, wherein the plurality ofpolymorphisms are indicative of wild rocket variety 89-004 RZ and/orgive rise to the expression of any one or more, or all, of themorphological and physiological characteristics of wild rocket variety89-004 RZ as claimed in claim 2.